Ridley Scott makes wonderful movies, don’t you think?

[Bayesian 1,363]

So I’ve come the realization—far too late, but better than never—that Ridley Scott makes wonderful movies. You see, I always liked Gladiator and Alien and appreciated the craft in Hannibal and black hawk down and the last duel. But after hyping myself up for Napoleon and having my sky-high expectations almost completely satisfied, I started to look at the rest of his oeuvre. All the Money in the World: phenomenal. House of Gucci: Masterfully entertaining. The Duellists: A brilliant debut. American gangster: Fantastic. Still need to watch body of lies, the counselor, g.i. Jane and a few others, but I don’t expect to be disappointed.

 

Anyone else feel the love for this director? He’s giving Tim Burton a real run for his money as my favorite director after Spielberg. 

[Tallguy 3,401]

We watched The Martian tonight. I love this movie so much.

[Edmilson 7,470]

Nah, he's more miss than hit.

 

14 minutes ago, Bayesian said:

So I’ve come the realization—far too late, but better than never—that Ridley Scott makes wonderful movies. You see, I always liked Gladiator and Alien and appreciated the craft in Hannibal and black hawk down and the last duel. But after hyping myself up for Napoleon and having my sky-high expectations almost completely satisfied, I started to look at the rest of his oeuvre. All the Money in the World: phenomenal. House of Gucci: Masterfully entertaining. The Duellists: A brilliant debut. American gangster: Fantastic. Still need to watch body of lies, the counselor, g.i. Jane and a few others, but I don’t expect to be disappointed.

 

Anyone else feel the love for this director? He’s giving Tim Burton a real run for his money as my favorite director after Spielberg. 

You say he's one of your favorite directors and doesn't even mention his best movie?

 

[Bayesian 1,363]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Nah, he's more miss than hit.

 

You say he's one of your favorite directors and doesn't even mention his best movie?

 

Ah, good catch. Although I’ll confess that neo-noir dystopian movies have never been among my favorite genres.

[A24 4,345]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Nah, he's more miss than hit.

 

3 great movies, some good ones, and a lot of 'not so good' ones. 

 

3 hours ago, Bayesian said:

 Ridley Scott makes wonderful movies.

 

Thor agrees.

 

3 hours ago, Bayesian said:

The Duellists: A brilliant debut.

 

It is!

[JTN 2,040]

5 hours ago, Bayesian said:

Although I’ll confess that neo-noir dystopian movies have never been among my favorite genres.

I hate the constant labelling. BLADE RUNNER is a brilliant film. Period.

[Thor 7,518]

Quote

Ridley Scott makes wonderful movies, don’t you think?

 

Most certainly. He's my second favourite director of all time, only surpassed by Spielberg.

[crocodile 8,018]

Well, he certainly knows what he's doing.

 

Karol

[GerateWohl 4,371]

He is for sure an extraordinary filmmaker with outstanding and some very bad movies in his record. 

 

Movies of him I didn't like are

• Hannibal 
• 1492
• Prometheus
• Legend 
• Exodus
• White Squal
• Black Hawk Down

His best movies in my view are still 

• Bladerunner
• Alien
• Gladiator 
• Thelma and Louise
• The Marsian

But I also liked good enough Tricks, Body of Lies, Robin Hood, A Good Year and House of Gucci.

 

But I would still say, even the movies of him I don't like are extraordinary in their own way.

[Chen G. 3,950]

Ridley Scott is absolutely and without a doubt one of the great masters of the screen. Just making a film like Gladiator or Alien would buy him a place on the pantheon. The fact that he made both, as well as Thelma and Louise and Bladerunner pretty much puts him amidst the titans of the field.

 

The issue with Ridley is he has a lousy taste in screenplays. When you're a director that doesn't write, even if you are involved in the shaping of the story with the writers and able to rejig the story somewhere in the cutting room, you're still left somewhat at the mercy of what's on the page, and that's an issue that dogs quite a few directors, including the likes of Spielberg.

 

But Ridley really just has a truly lousy taste in scripts. I think he reads them seeing chances for arresting pictures, but in terms of the story sticking together they often just don't. Even some of his great movies aren't really great scripts: would anyone reading the script of Alien think it would turn out the way it did? The success of the movie is in the craftsmanship of the set and creature design, the earnestness of the performances and the atmosphere Ridley imbues it all with. Gladiator is not a great script, either: poorly structured and with thin characterisation. Kingdom of Heaven is even worst. But in all those cases, the script is good enough to not stand in the way, as it were. Which is not the case in a movie like, say, Legend, where Ridley's craft is again as immpecable as ever, but ensnared by a truly ghastly screenplay.

 

But the craft is absolutely always on the level of a David Lean.

[Thor 7,518]

I've seen all of his films and television projects (and shorts), whether as director or producer. I do have one major hole, though -- his adverts. If memory serves, he's done thousands of them. At least several hundreds. I've obviously seen the most famous ones (Apple, Hovis), but there's a whole world of Scott-directed commercials out there that I need to see before I die. Doubt I'll be able to complete it, though, as many are completely unavailable.

 

By the way, I really recommend this Ridley Scott book, for anyone interested:

 

 

One of the most common criticisms I have to face as a Scott fan, and once again displayed by Chen above, is people who think he's all about surface value, and not enough about literary content. I take major issue with that, because film as an artform is so much more than storytelling. If story was the be-all, end-all aspect of films, we would be reading books instead. Form IS content, and a film experience can be about so many audiovisual things, like being engrossed in a particular landscape, or communicating various ideas through audiovisual means that aren't strictly speaking about storytelling.

 

In fact, that Ridley Scott criticism was one of the main inspirations for my own thesis -- i.e. taking to task the notion that everything is story in film.

[Andy 4,141]

He has the eye of a painter, so even if the narrative or humanity of his films may sometimes be lacking, they’re pretty to look at at always well crafted. 

[Thor 7,518]

"Pretty to look at"...that's my opponents' view summed up right there.

[Andy 4,141]

But sometimes that’s okay for cinema. Not every film has to tick every box.  If it’s literally moving picture, like a painting or still art, it can have profound merit and meaning. 

I guess his art house style can be appealing despite other conventional shortcomings. 

[A24 4,345]

 

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

• Black Hawk Down

 

I never was able to watch this movie in its entirety. I'm allergic to the macho 'Tony Scott' tone of the movie. 

 

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

 

But I also liked good enough Tricks, Body of Lies, Robin Hood, A Good Year and House of Gucci.

 

 

Give All The Money In The World a shot. In my humble opinion, it's better than all of these. It has a similar Thelma & Louise kind of storytelling (serious subject but told in an almost lighthearted manner).

[Thor 7,518]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

But sometimes that’s okay for cinema. Not every film has to tick every box.  If it’s literally moving picture, like a painting or still art, it can have profound merit and meaning. 

I guess his art house style can be appealing despite other conventional shortcomings. 

 

Yeah, that's my main attraction to Scott. Even when the script or storytelling is weak, he always manages to communicate interesting ideas through his use of sound and visuals alone. That's equally important (for me, MORE important). I'm attracted to film as a medium because of its ability to absorb me in a universe, or to say things in non-literary ways. That's not to say Scott hasn't had great stories or scripts -- he has! -- but it's not my main attraction to him as a filmmaker.